Anthony Ceccoli

Anthony "Tony" Ceccoli is the original personality of the former Los Angeles Dollhouse Active, Victor. Anthony joined the Dollhouse in 2005, serving a five year contract in exchange for being cured of his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and was assigned the Los Angeles facility from elsewhere. He would later father a son with Priya Tsetsang and take part in the war against Rossum, becoming a tech-head until the year 2020 when he rejoined his family.

Background

Sergeant Anthony Ceccoli was an Afghanistan war veteran with severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD) which he was cured of in exchange for a five-year contact with the Dollhouse. He was transferred straight into the L.A. Dollhouse and did not meet with Adelle DeWitt as per the usual procedure (in this sense, he is similar to prison recruit Karl William Kraft and psychiatric ward recruit Priya Tsetsang). For the next five years, he serves as doll called Victor.

In S1: "Echoes", under the effects of the psychoactive drug N-7316, Victor (as Tom Voran) experiences a memory glitch: a flashback where he is a soldier trying to save a young woman in a war zone. She panics and runs off, setting off an explosive. In S1: "Needs", Victor is imprinted as Anthony without any memories as part of an exercise to let the Actives achieve a sense of past life closure: Victor's ends when he kisses Sierra (imprinted as real self, Priya). Their attachment to one another is shown in every identity either pair assumes, whether that means blank state, engagement identity or their real selves. When Victor and Sierra put paint on one another's faces in S2: "Belonging", he flashes to Anthony's memory of another soldier asking him for orders in the middle of a war zone. Victor then collapses into Sierra's arms, weeping that he doesn't want to be in charge. When he is released in S2: "Stop-Loss", even the blank state Sierra is able to say he's not ready yet, indicating that his PSTD lingers with Victor at least until he is restored to his original personality.

Post-Dollhouse life

When Anthony is released into the real world after five years in the Dollhouse, he has some trouble adjusting. He stays at a hotel and now has a considerable sum of money. At a nightclub he sees a young Asian woman who he mistakes for Sierra. He sleeps in his shower because it recreates the sleeping pod environment of the Dollhouse. He is then captured by Scytheon, a Rossum Corporation-sponsored paramilitary group which recruits ex-Actives into a hive mind supersoldier unit. They are also all ex-soldiers, some of whom Anthony recognizes. Programmer Topher Brink notices when Anthony's biolink feed went offline (still in his 'adjustment' period), so Boyd investigates with the Active Echo, who is self-aware and can access multiple personality skills. Echo is loaded up with more personality and skills packages, and Sierra is imprinted as Priya, and the two track down Anthony. Anthony is able to overcome group mind programming because of Priya's presence. Echo enters into the hive mind and overpowers it with her 40+ consciousnesses. Anthony and Priya are set to escape, but are instead rendered unconscious by DeWitt using the Disruptor, and returned to the Dollhouse, from where they are sent to the Attic by Adelle DeWitt S2: "Stop-Loss".

In the Attic (S2: "The Attic"), Victor is caught in a simulation, an infinite loop of war time nightmares. The consciousnesses of Laurence Dominic and Echo enter his scenario. The three track a shadow creature called "Arcane" into Priya's nightmare; when they catch it, the group meet Clyde Randolph, a Rossum founder and the first victim of the Attic. Clyde reveals the Attic is a network of brains that form a supercomputer; by killing off consciousnesses as Arcane, he reduces the "CPU count" and impairs Rossum's progress. His nightmare is an outcome simulator: in short, a 97% probable future of societal collapse, as caused by the Dollhouse technology. Anthony, along with Echo and Sierra, allow themselves to be killed in the Attic with the hope they can wake up again after flat-lining and disengaging from the computer system. Anthony stabs Priya, and lets the mob outside kill him. They are successful, and Adelle DeWitt later informs them that she sent Echo (and them) to the Dollhouse to retrieve information on how to defeat Rossum.

Before the Dollhouse comes under attack from Rossum, Echo insists that Anthony and Priya escape to have what is potentially their last night together (S2: "Getting Closer"). Anthony and Priya return the next day to find the house deserted, and Topher's back-up wedge. To find out what happened, Anthony reluctantly has himself imprinted as Topher. Topher is brought up to speed with the Dollhouse's current situation and using security footage, discovers that Boyd drugged Echo (imprinted/rejoined with Caroline) and resolves to give up his personhood and imprint Anthony with new, super-advanced fighting skills. Priya reluctantly accepts and Anthony reawakens with new skills, which he uses to defeat Rossum special ops and security guards and break into the Rossum HQ in Tucson to assist Echo in defeating Boyd (S2: "The Hollow Men").

Future

Stored memories shown in S1: "Epitaph One", of questionable reliability, show that the Dollhouse becomes a shelter for former Actives and people escaping the apocalyptic outcome of Rossum's endeavors. One shows Anthony is imprinted as Rossum VP Clive Ambrose, who delivers a message to the Dollhouse: Rossum is now offering Actives as "full-body upgrades" to their richest clients. Adelle demands he give up the body (as it belongs to "another soul"), which Ambrose tells her that would be a defining move that Rossum wouldn't take kindly to. Another flashback shows Anthony and Priya discussing ways of distinguishing Actives from "actuals", and they are evidently on less amicable terms after all they've been through. A later flashback portrays Anthony (or Victor) in the Dollhouse, Sierra no longer there, and he is seen engaging in conversation with Paul Ballard, with whom he is evidently friendly. In the 2019 setting, Anthony's picture appears on a wall in Adelle DeWitt's office under the heading "To Remember" (the meaning of which is vague).

In S2: "Epitaph Two: Return", Anthony is revealed to have left Priya to lead a group of self-imprinting fighters against Rossum. While they cannot maintain multiple skill sets simultaneously like Alpha and Echo, they can swap in and out between them using handheld imprinting devices, and he goes by his old callsign "Victor". His face now contains electronic attachments to make the technology work for him. Priya is furious with him for leaving her alone with their son, T, in Safe Haven. When he returns, his armored vehicle is used to take Echo and the LA crew, along with actuals Mag, Zone and a Caroline-imprinted little girl back to the Dollhouse. Within, he received friendly greeting from Alpha, who addresses him as "Victor" and humorously refers to the electronic disfigurements on his face (calling back to S1: "Briar Rose"); the two have evidently become comrades at some point following a change in Alpha. In the Dollhouse, Anthony and Priya reconcile and he begins to bond with his son T, who he learns is named Tony after him. When Topher Brink's device goes off, restoring all wiped and imprinted individuals to their original selves, Anthony stays in the Dollhouse along with Echo, Priya, T, Mag and Kilo to start a life with his family.